Farming Returns A Beefy $37.8bn In 2005-06

The Age

Tuesday September 11, 2007

Philip Hopkins

THE gross value of agricultural production in Australia in 2005-06 was $37.8 billion, preliminary estimates by the Bureau of Statistics show.

The biggest contributions came from livestock slaughtering of cattle and calves ($7.7 billion), wheat for grain ($5.2 billion) and wholemilk ($3.3 billion).

The ABS said comparisons with previous years' figures should be treated with caution because of changes in the way commodity statistics were collected.

Crop output in 2005-06 was valued at $20.1 billion. Apart from wheat, barley, hay and grapes were each worth $1.4 billion and sugar cane was $1.1 billion.

Average prices increased: wheat and hay (each 3 per cent), sugar cane and sorghum (7 per cent), oats (10 per cent) and canola (3 per cent). However, prices for rice and barley were down respectively 12 and 6 per cent. Cotton was unchanged.

The value of grape output fell by 10 per cent to $1.4 billion, as prices declined by 9 per cent due to an oversupply of wine grapes.

The drought conditions hit apples hard; production was down by 15 per cent, and average prices fell by 20 per cent, resulting in a 32 per cent decrease in value to $360 million.

Banana output was $407 million, with average prices rocketing by 87 per cent to more than $2300 per tonne as production in Queensland was hit by cyclone Larry.

The gross value of livestock slaughterings was $12 billion, a fall of less than 1 per cent, while live sheep and lamb exports rose by 41 per cent to $298 million. Pig slaughterings were down 2 per cent to $890 million, with poultry also down 6 per cent to $1.2 billion.

Livestock products were valued at $5.8 billion. Wholemilk rose by $149 million (5 per cent) to $3.3 billion, with average prices up 5 per cent, offsetting a 1 per cent decline in production.

The gross value of egg production was $353 million, with average prices declining by 11 per cent over the period. -- PHILIP HOPKINS

LINK

? www.abs.gov.au

© 2007 The Age

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